E3 2013: Killer Instinct Is a Fun Free to Play Xbox One Launch Game

Killer Instinct was always sort of dumb -- the goofy Mortal Kombat knock-off with a skeleton, a dinosaur, and dudes named TJ Combo (ugh) and Fulgore (what?). In hindsight, Killer Instinct was kind of embarrassing. But we still connected to it. Who doesn’t want to see a ninja fist-fight a werewolf?

Killer Instinct on Xbox One is still really, really stupid. It’s also pretty awesome.

More Street Fighter IV than traditional Killer Instinct in speed and style, this reboot isn’t just looking at how it can bring Rare’s classic back to life, but how it can reinvigorate it. The 2D fighter has changed significantly since 1994, and developer Double Helix recognizes it.

Killer Instinct is fast on Xbox One, unrecognizably so. Aside from the presence of Sabrewulf (ugh) and Jago (what?), you might mistake this for an entirely new game. The bright colors, and thick, black outlines give the characters, who take up a healthy amount of on-screen real estate, a comic book-style shade. Their combos are quick and flow naturally -- I found myself slipping into an awesome combo accidentally, Marvel vs. Capcom style, often.

The move sets are simple, the stylish and devastating Ultra Combos are easy to execute, and the Combo Breaker makes you feel like a badass. It’s basically just a parry with a fancy name, but Killer Instinct regards it so highly that it’s hard not to feel the surge of satisfaction every time you escape an onslaught of frightening kicks. Every big counter feels like an event, and it can totally change the flow of a fight when your opponent's left exposed after your escape.

Killer Instinct is a day-one digital-only release on Xbox One, and features -- get this -- one character. Jago is free to play on launch day. Everyone else -- unspecified returning characters as well as original fighters -- will cost money. Price is to-be-determined (of course).

Is this the start of a new trend? With Xbox Live Arcade vanishing into the greater Games Marketplace, perhaps free-to-play is the new trial version, and you'll nickel and dime your way to a more complete version. Hopefully trials of some sort will still mandated so players can try out everything as it hits Xbox Live.

IGN will have more on Killer Instinct leading up to its November release.

Things just keep getting worse out of the MS camp. Not many will look at this very likely, as myself included am disgruntled. I have waited years for a full complete Killer Instinct title but if they are pulling this crap it looks like my wait is still ongoing.

Loved k.i.in the arcade...good game with ridiculous combo ability's. Jago is also the best character in the game combo wise. i remember hitting a nice 80 chain combo with him..wonder if eyedol will make an appearence as a playable character..probably cost a tenna lol.

This is just dumb. May as well just release the game on disk day 1 - let it get some decent exposure instead of releasing it essentially as a glorified demo that people pay money for characters. sooo soo bad

Hu ? Wth ? If you go F2P then it should be full F2P for all characters. Itīs like when u play Leagues of Legends but only have access to 3 champs and the rest of the 47 cost money oO There is properly a much better way to earn some cash like charge for new skins, arenas, taunts, heck even new super-special-ultra-1000 hit moves would fit. But that ... seems not very clever. But who knows maybe it will rock so good that everyone will fall in love just by playing with one dude named Jago.

Day one. I really like the F2P options. Looking forward to seeing more this next gen from both camps.

I am against it. This game could be epic, but this is pathetic to me. Unless of course, it is a quality game that should be a disc/dig for $60. Then if I can f2p $60 for the entire game, I'll be ok with that.

How the hell can this be spun as a bad thing? It's FREE to play for as long as you like. After that, you have the option to spend more money if you want (or not).

I play a handful of free to play games in various places and I have never spent any money for 100s of hours of entertainment. Not great for the devs, but I bet they would change their model if they weren't making money on it.

If you are that opposed to it just buy the whole damn thing without playing it. That will show them.

I really liked Killer Instinct lets hope no other devs from both camps follow this epic failure. How are you gonna say its free to play but to play you have to buy the fighters. Why not release the game free with all the classic characters then offer dlc for new stages and characters

Last edited by hood; 06-11-2013 at 14:39.

"I think all those developers who are saying, "We donít want to do a PS3 game," or "Itís really difficult to do it," should shut up and make their games. If you have time to complain about it, then you should be spending your time working on getting the most from the hardware."

Am so disappointed in MS right now I just can't believe the choices they're making!!!

"We don't provide the 'easy to program for' console that (developers) want, because 'easy to program for' means that anybody will be able to take advantage of pretty much what the hardware can do, so then the question is, what do you do for the rest of the nine-and-a-half years?"
--Kaz Hirai, CEO, Sony Computer Entertainment

WTF?! Seriously?! This is about like Capcom times 1000X. I thought having DLC on disc was terrible. This whole game is DLC basically. I don't think anyone saw this coming! I can see this game failing bad. Such an awesome franchise too. Hate to see it devalued to this.

I'm surprised anyone cares enough to worry about the F2P issues, from what they showed yesterday the game looks like ass, this generation ass at that. KI had two things going for it on N64, it had whacky fighters, and it was entirely prerendered which gave it a unique look, it was a bit like the action figures you had as a kid came to life. Of course there were several copy cats at about that time, but KI was first. Now it just looks like any other 3D fighter these days, and almost all of them are looking like ass. For some reason DOA seems to have become the template for the modern 3D fighter, and the genre has suffered. Tekken and Soul Cailbre in particular have been in decline, Tekken 6 was almost offensive. Except for Street Fighter 4 and maybe Injustice 3D fighters have been terrible this generation.

I'm surprised anyone cares enough to worry about the F2P issues, from what they showed yesterday the game looks like ass, this generation ass at that. KI had two things going for it on N64, it had whacky fighters, and it was entirely prerendered which gave it a unique look, it was a bit like the action figures you had as a kid came to life. Of course there were several copy cats at about that time, but KI was first. Now it just looks like any other 3D fighter these days, and almost all of them are looking like ass. For some reason DOA seems to have become the template for the modern 3D fighter, and the genre has suffered. Tekken and Soul Cailbre in particular have been in decline, Tekken 6 was almost offensive. Except for Street Fighter 4 and maybe Injustice 3D fighters have been terrible this generation.

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